Traditional Printing Inspires New 2 Pound Coin

In the days before fancy wireless printers, large format machines and ink cartridges, documents and other ephemera were produced by much more primitive means - usually a simple printing block.

In recognition of this, The Royal Mint has released a new £2 coin that is inspired by the printing process that was used to produce the King James Bible, which celebrates its 400th birthday next year.

According to PrintWeek, the coin features the quote "In the beginning was the Word", with the text duplicated - one copy reversed, to represent the printing block, the other indented, to represent the printed text.

The King James Bible has a rich and dramatic history, the Royal Mint said. It was borne out of Puritan concern, around 1604, that some parts of the then current bible's translations were inaccurate.

Consequently King James agreed to the creation of a new bible, and the tome was born. "Scholars praise it for its majestic style and poetic rhythms. The most printed book ever, it is still the third most widely sold bible by number of copies," the Royal Mint said.